From the Philippines, teams made their way to Calgary, Alberta[thanks for the edumacation Jenn]. That's in Canada for your Ignorant Americans, or Europeans, or you separatists in Montreal. Alberta is a nice place, a former location for the winter olympics, but I guess I have always been a Lillehammer type of guy (my first memories of curling). Colin mentioned how this part would be cake for him and Christie, since they are big fans of extreme sports. Read: Colin loves extreme sports, Christie's extreme sport is dealing with Colin for any length of time. Everybody was on the same plane, and they first had to scale this side of a ski slope in snowshoes. Colin, always master motivator rallied Christie by saying "Come on! You're not even dead yet!" after she took time to catch her breath in the thin air. Chip and Kim lost valuable time changing in the car instead of on the lift up to the edge of the slope. They were far behind the others, who went on to the next part of the race, a choice between a two-person luge race and a slalom down a slope on bikes, both within a predetermined time limit. Colin and Christie went for the first, Brandon and Nicole went for the latter. Colin and Christie went through easily, Brandon and Nicole not so much. Nicole had a bike that was too tall on her first run and they missed the time limit. On the second run, Nicole had a breakdown on the slope in something we thought was either a flashback to Zach and Flo from a couple of seasons ago, or Michael Douglas in Falling Down. They went on to the luge, and finished that easily as well. They made their way to the airport behind Colin and Christie, but both teams made it in time to get the first flight to Dallas, the final destination, the next morning.

Despite being far behind after the mountain climb, and some difficulties on the ice luge, Chip and Kim made it to the airport in time to book the first flight as well. Yes, Chip and Kim had trouble on the luge. I thought Chip and his mass would motor them down the course in no time, but it seems Chip can't steer, so they needed several tries to get going. By some stroke of luck, they called and found out the first flight to Dallas the next day was delayed, and they were going to make it on a flight that arrived in Dallas, through Denver, almost two hours earlier than the other teams, who had already progressed to the hotel and were packing up to go the next day. Chip and Kim decided not to tell anybody, but went to the hotel anyway, which I thought was a mistake. Perhaps those red Canadian leaf hats were on too tight, but I felt it would have been better for them to sleep in the airport, giving the other teams a false sense of security going into the next leg. The next morning, as Chip and Kim made it to their flight, the other teams found out their flight was cancelled and desperately tried to get on the same flight as Chip and Kim, only to find out it was overbooked. Eventually, they made their way onto the same flight as Chip and Kim to Denver, but did not have a connecting flight to Dallas confirmed on the same airline.

In Denver, this proved to be a bad move. Colin and Christie and Brandon and Nicole had packed many things to check onto the plane so they wouldn't have as much baggage to carry. Unfortunately for them, they wouldn't be able to take the same flight as Chip and Kim to Dallas because checked baggage must go through screening again if it is on another airline. They are also not allowed to leave their bags at the airline, per FAA rules. Chip and Kim made it on their flight, which got them to Dallas with a ten minute lead.

The final part of the race, in Dallas, had the teams navigating a maze to unlock a series of clues that would open the last clue. As they are wont to due, Chip and Kim found a good driver and didn't lose their lead on the way to the maze. Colin, showing great foresight, had reserved a car at the Dallas airport ahead of time, and requested a fast driver. He got his wish, and they advanced to the maze like they were in some NASCAR race. Brandon and Nicole couldn't find a fast Taxi and were a distant third. Chip and Kim had some problems in the maze, and kept on getting lost, but managed to finish the maze just as Colin and Christie were arriving. It was clear from the editing that the plan was to put Chip and Kim's ordinary taxi driver against the madman behind the wheel of Colin and Christie. The producers edited away any difficulty Colin and Christie had during the maze to make it look like the made only a handful of mistakes. At the same time, the showed Chip and Kim stuck in traffic. Colin and Christie finished, and their driver was using every means imaginable to beat traffic, including using the shoulder and going briefly into an oncoming lane.

Posted by J-Unit on September 22, 2004 1:50 AM